After 38 years of being a Shell customer - I've decided to end the relationship.

In August - as is our normal habit - my wife paid our Shell credit card bill in full. We have been doing this for 38 years and have *NEVER* had an overdue balance. She paid it by check as we always do and mailed in the payment.

The payment was received and processed by Shell Oil 2 days later - and then the payment was rejected by our bank, so Shell put on a $39 returned check fee, a $30 "late fee" and $2.40 in interest.

We contacted Shell and asked about what happened - and were told there was no way they could tell why the check was bounced that we'd have to contact our bank.

After discussing this with several people in the credit card customer service - I asked for a supervisor, and found that this was a lie. Shell routinely scans checks and then sends the scan electronically to the bank for payment, destroying the check after processing.

In this case - apparently they got confused - and "Chet" the supervisor was able to pull up the scan - to see it was only half a check. No wonder our bank (correctly) rejected the payment. It's apparent this screwup happened at Shell since they continued processing the payment hoping to cover their butts instead of simply contacting us and asking for another check.

Chet claimed someone had written on the half-check in addition to the normal figures that would be filled in. I believe that was also done by Shell's processing department.

Apparently Shell's processing department managed to destroy a legitimate payment, made on time, in a manner that should be acceptable to them, and then after destroying the payment, charged us for fees that should have been only charged to a bad account.

This is after 38 YEARS of flawless payment to this company.

I used to think Shell Oil was a decent company to do business with - I now know otherwise. Apparently employees of the company can screw up and blame customers for their mistakes - costing loyal customers money and aggravation.

I don't need to do business with a company that treats customers in this manner and have requested that my account be closed. If you have Shell Oil credit - I'd suggest you do the same. Shells loss will be Exxon-Mobil's gain.